In my attempt to filter the news out of my every day life, I’ve had some success and a few times it has gotten through to me again. I can’t find my way to just parsing all of the topics and sources completely from my feed, because the fear of missing out on something relevant to me is real.

But this comes at the cost of opening myself to the endless barrage of political news that makes up a good portion of the overall news.

Just in the past week some insane things have happened leading me further down the road of conclusions that I had reached sometime halfway through 2023. The 2024 Republican Primary contest that was going to be this contentious, bloody battle will be settled within the first month because Trump is going to run away with the nomination. Days after Iowa resoundingly voted for Trump, DeSantis dropped out and endorsed him, leaving Nikki Haley as the only competition left.

Haley is all but guaranteed to lose New Hampshire tomorrow, and then there is a short break before the next states weigh in. But it won’t even matter because her campaign will hemorrhage money and supporters and she’ll drop out.

I try not to think about the inevitable but the writing on all of the walls is coming into clearer focus by the day.

2024 will be a rematch of Biden vs. Trump and I feel as though I can’t vote for either of them. This makes me question whether or not there is a moral implication for abstaining, and as a result, whether or not I am doing the right thing considering it.

Neither of these men represent what I want our country to be, and there are no other choices worth considering, or that will be available to me in Indiana. A write-in is a throwaway vote, and I think I am done protest voting. Choosing the lesser evil isn’t a choice, it’s an illusion that a party wants me to buy into. They also frame it in a way that tries to make anyone like me feel guilty if we don’t vote. Because if we don’t vote, then the terrorists win.

I don’t think that’s true at all.

I live in a state that has voted for a Democrat once since 1964 and that was Obama’s first run in 2008. During the last two general elections, it was something close to 60/40 at the state level, and it was closer to 70/30 in my county. If I were to vote democrat, it’s a throwaway, because there is no way in hell my state is gonna break that way. Add to that my lukewarm at best reception of Biden, and it makes for sitting this one out.

This only matters in a system where the electoral college is the law of the land. If the power were truly in the hands of the citizens as it should be and they just tallied the popular vote to make the decision, I would protest vote every single time. But that isn’t how things work, so I have to make due consideration over the next 9 months as to whether or not I will even bother.

As it stands, I am leaning toward sitting this one out. I am all but certain that there won’t be a substantial enough change in either candidate or their platform to sway me from my seat, and I will accept whatever judgment I may have hurled at me for my choice. But at the end of the day, voting is a choice, not an obligation.

I am choosing not to play this game any more.